An international big data expo showcasing cutting-edge technological innovations and achievements in related fields is being held in southwest China's Guizhou province. The three-day China International Big Data Industry Expo 2021, currently being held in the provincial capital Guiyang, has attracted 225 domestic and international companies, according to the organizing committee.

In ? Embracing Digital Intelligence, Delivering New Development? theme, this year's expo is organized both online and offline. The expo will witness six high-level dialogues on topics such as data security, digital services and industry digitization.

Vice Premier Liu He delivered a speech via video link at the opening ceremony. Noting the importance of big data in global scientific and technological innovation, industrial restructuring and economic and social development, Liu said China will accelerate its efforts to expand the application scenarios of big data, and strengthen the industry's infrastructure and talent training. China will also establish and improve governance systems and regulations and expand international cooperation to promote the development of the big data sector, he added. Speaking at the opening ceremony, Liu Liehong, vice minister of industry and information technology, said the big data industry has become an important and decisive force in promoting the transformation of the industrial economy into a digital economy.

The vice minister noted that in the ? Thirteenth Five-Year? period (2016-2020), the compound annual growth rate of China's big data industry exceeded 30 percent, with the industrial scale reaching more than 1 trillion yuan (about 152.7 billion U.S. dollars) in 2020. As a leading big data pilot zone in China, Guizhou has experienced rapid industry growth over the past few years.

Shen Yiqin, party secretary of Guizhou, said at the opening ceremony of the expo that Guizhou has one of the highest numbers of giant data centers in the world, and its digital economy growth rate has ranked first in China for six consecutive years.

Secretary General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization Vladimir? Norov noted that companies such as Apple, Huawei and Alibaba Ba have entered and invested in Guizhou, which they said at the opening ceremony is expected to become one of the world's largest data centers within a few years.

The Large Data Industry Expo, China's first of its kind, has been held five times in Guiyang since 2015. in 2019, the Expo attracted more than 448 companies from 59 countries and regions, which signed contracts worth nearly $1,008 billion at the Expo. Organizers canceled the event last year because of a new coronavirus pneumonia outbreak.

Guizhou was authorized in 2016 to build China's first national comprehensive pilot zone for big data. It has attracted heavyweights including Apple, Huawei and Tencent to set up cloud computing and big data centers as well as regional headquarters.